Review of 'Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It says on the back of this book in big capitals “TRAVEL WRITING MATTERS”, this has never felt more true since the lockdowns started in 2020, with people unable to travel they needed some way of escaping the monotony of home schooling/working from home and becoming an armchair travel was one method of escape. The editors of this book have been travelling the world for many years and being trapped at home inspired them to look into what other writers had experienced and put together this collection of short travel pieces.
I always think that the first piece in a book like this is always the most important as it sets the standard of what to come, this fell to Leon McCarron with The Night Train. Travelling across Iraq by train at night, not much you can write about the view…due to the sun being AWOL…so the focus is on …
It says on the back of this book in big capitals “TRAVEL WRITING MATTERS”, this has never felt more true since the lockdowns started in 2020, with people unable to travel they needed some way of escaping the monotony of home schooling/working from home and becoming an armchair travel was one method of escape. The editors of this book have been travelling the world for many years and being trapped at home inspired them to look into what other writers had experienced and put together this collection of short travel pieces.
I always think that the first piece in a book like this is always the most important as it sets the standard of what to come, this fell to Leon McCarron with The Night Train. Travelling across Iraq by train at night, not much you can write about the view…due to the sun being AWOL…so the focus is on those using the train, a fascinating insight into the people on the train and a great start to the book. There are some very good pieces here and they cover a lot of places and events I know very little about and in many of the pieces the pandemic is ever present.
Favourites here include visiting well known Safari park during the lockdown, without the many many tourists the animals seem very content, relaxing in the peace and quiet. A father’s ashes being taken to the Ganges as a sort of pilgrimage and somebody taking part in the Hajj pilgrimage were probably the best in the book, I knew nothing about the Hajj and Tharik Hussain shares their experience and explains why they go and the fear they experience before getting the euphoric feeling that they achieved what they set up to do.
One of the most impressive things about this book is each writer is considered British and such a large number of different cultures are represented, it’s wonderful see how varied we are. Each piece of writing here has featured in a magazine or journal of some sort and that restricts the word length, using this book as a way to scope out the talent works well, there are many writers here that I would happily read again.
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/the-best-british-travel-writing-of-the-21st-century/
